Electro-mechanical movement



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. R. H. MATHER.

' I ELEGTRO MECHANICAL MOVBMENT. No. 377,684. Patented Feb. 7, 1888.

witnesses (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet R; H. MATHER.

ELEGTRO MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

llillllv f m k UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

RICHARD H. MATHER, OF WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT.

ELECTRO-MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 377,684, dated February '7, 1888.

Application filed May 8, 1886. Serial No. 200,929. (No model.) i

' To all whom it may concern:

spectively. Figs. 3 and 5 are a side view and a plan view of the relay, respectively.

In these views, 1 is the field-magnet of the motor. 2 and 3 are the limbs of the same, being wound with coils 4 and 5, respectively, as an electro-magnet, in the usual manner, while 6 and 7 are pole-pieces adjacent to armature 8.

The latter is mounted in the usual manner upon shaft 9, which is journaled in magnet 1 and in yoke 10. This yoke is fastened to fieldmagnet 1 by bolts 11 and 11. The commutator 12 is mounted upon shaft 9, in the usual manner,between the limbs 2 and 3 of magnet 1. Brushes 13 and 14, allowing the armature 8 to rotate in either direction, are held in proper positions of contact with commutator 12 by their respective holders 15 and 16, which are fastened to opposite sidesof field-magnet 1 by bolts 17, and are separated from that magnet by intermediate plates of insulating material,

18. This motor is attached to any suitable frame or box, 19. Attached to the same support, 19, is the relay-magnet 20, consisting of a spool or bobbin of soft iron, 21, upon which is wound, in the usual manner, the helix 22, of insulated copper wire. This helix is wound to that degree of electromagnetic efficiency which is hereinafter stated.

The ends of spool 21 are enlarged and extended in pole-pieces 23 23, which are cylindrically concave toward each other on the front side of the magnet. Spool 21 is further provided with a central annular projection, 24, upon which the armature 25 is mounted between pole-pieces 23 and 23 by a central pivot Figs. 2 and 4 are an end view and a plan view of the motor, re-- or screw, 26. Armature 25 is a magnetic plate, which is perforated in the middle for screw 26 and is rounded at the ends upon the same cylindrical curve as are the concave surfaces which are presented thereto by pole pieces 23 and 23.

Armature 25 is provided with a spring, 27, which tends to turn the same upon pivot 26 away from polepieces 23 and 23 with a degree of force which is hereinafter specified. A strip of copper, 28, in a normal position parallel to the axis of spool 21, is mounted in a rigid and insulated manner upon armature 25. This copper strip is free to move laterally between two contacts or strips of conductive material, 29 and 30,whenever motion is imparted to armature 25.

Contacts 29 and 30 are fastened upon one end of spool 21 on opposite sides of the normal position of strip 28 at such a distance therefrom as to touch one or the other of said contacts wheneverthat strip reaches a predetermined amplitude of deflection from its normal position. These contacts are insulated from spool 21 and from each other.

Binding-posts 31 and 32, being respectively connected by main-circuit wires 33 and 34: with the positive and negative poles of a generator, are the terminals of the instrument. The positive terminal 31 is connected with helix 22 by coarse wire 37. Helix 22 is connected with coil 5 by coarse wire 38. is connected with brush-holder 15 at bindingpost 35 by coarse wire 39. Brush-holder 15 is connected at the same point with coil 4 by coarse wire 40, and that coil is connected with negative terminal 32 by coarse wire 11. A fine wire, 42, connects wire 38 with contact 29, and a fine wire, 43, connects wire 41 with cont-act 30. In like manner a fine wire, 38, connects brush-holder 16 with copper 28 by binding-post 36. The electromagnetic efficiency of helix 22 and the traction of spring 27 are such relatively to each other that copper 28 is not only held in equilibrium in the position shown in Fig. 1 whenever that helix is energized by a normal current, but is deflected to a position of contact with one or the other of said contacts 29 and 30 whenever said current increases or diminishes to a predetermined extent.

Coil 5 The remaining features of construction of this instrument will sufficiently appear from the drawings and from the mode of operation, as hereinafter described.

Such being the construction of this electromechanical movement, the mode of its operation is as follows: \Vhen no current passes through the instrument, copper 28 is pressed against contact 29 by the force of spring 26, and the motor is inoperative. Then a normal current passes through the instrument, the same passes from binding-post 31 successively through wire 37, helix 22, wire 38, coil 5, wires 39 and 40, coil 4, and wire 41 to binding-post 32, and the copper strip 28 is held in its normal position, as shown in Fig. 1, and in this case also the motor is inoperative. If the current rises above or falls below its normal strength, the change produces a corresponding deflection of copper 28. When the current falls below its normal strength by so much as the predetermined difference before mentioned, the copper 28 is brought against contact 29 by the preponderating force of spring 27. In that case an electric circuit is closed at the point of contact, so that the current is divided at a point between coils 22 and 5 and passes from terminal to terminal of the instrument in the following manner: From terminal 31 said current passes undivided through wire 37, helix 22, and wire 38 as far as the junction of wires 38 and 42. There the current divides, and while the principal part thereof goes on by wire 38 and passes successively through coil 5, wires 39 and 40, coil 4, and wire 41 to terminal 32, the residue of the same passes from the junction of wires 38 and 42 successively through wire 42, contact 29, copper 28, wire 43, binding-post 36, brushholder 16, brush 14, armature 8, brush 13, brush-holder 15, wire 40, coil 4, and wire 41 to terminal 32. The field-magnet and armature being energized in the manner described, the latter is caused to revolve, together with shaft 9, in a manner and upon principles common to electric motors in general.

\Vhenever the current rises above its normal strength by so much as the predetermined difference before mentioned, copper strip 28 is, by the preponderating force of magnet 20, brought against contact 30. Thus an electric circuit is closed at the point of contact, and the current, being divided between coils4and 5, passes from terminal to terminal of the instrument in the following manner: From terminal 31 said current passes undivided through wire 37, helix 22, wire 38, and coil 5 to binding-post 35. There the current divides, and while the principal part of the same goes on by wire 40 and passes successively through coil 4 and wire 41 to terminal 32, the residue thereof passes from binding-post 35 successively through brush-holder 15, brush 13, armature 8, brush 14, brush-holder l5, bindingpost 36, wire 43, copper 28, contact 30, wires 44 and 41 to terminal 32. Thus the field-magnet is energized just as before, and armature 8 is energized in the opposite direction; hence armature 8 and shaft 9 now revolve as before, but in the opposite direction. By means of this instrument, therefore, the armature-shaft of the motor is suffered to remain at rest oris caused to revolvein one direction orin the other,

according as the instrument is actuated by a current of normal strength or of more or less than that strength.

The foregoing statement of the construction and mode of operation of this instrument has special reference to the construction and use of the same when designed to be actuated by variations of current in the circuit in which it is placed. The same may be constructed and used so as to be actuated in like manner by variations of electro-motivc force by winding the instrument in the described manner to an aggregate resistance corresponding with the electro-motive force of the main circuit and by making the instrument a shunt to that circuit. In that case the circuit 33 34, instead of being the main circuit above specified, is a shunt-circuit derived therefrom.

The essence of this invention does not lie in connecting the motor-magnet and the relayin series, for they may be connected in parallel, one being placed in the main circuit and the other in a shunt-circuit derived therefrom indiscriminately. Neither is it necessary that both the motor-magnet and the relay should be actuated from a single source of current, for the field-magnet may be excited from an independent battery or other generator without affecting the result.

This invention is specially adapted to be used in regulators for electric-arc lamps, dynamo-electric machines, and other devices in which constant current or electro-motive force is required.

I claim as my invention- 1. A relay consisting of an eleetro-magnet, an armature which is pivoted between polepieces of said electro-magnet, a spring acting upon said armature, an insulated contactstrip which is mounted upon said armature, and two contact-plates which are mounted upon opposite sides of said contact-strip, in combination with an electric motor whose field-magnet is excited by two helices connected in series with the helix of said electromagnet and whose armature, being adapted to rotate in one direction when supplied with current of one polarity and in the opposite direction when supplied with current of the opposite polarity, is connected in parallel with one or the other, or neither, of said field-magnet helices, according as said contact-strip is for the time being in contact with one or the other, or neither, of said contactplates, substantially as specified.

2. A relay comprising an electromagnet, an armature thereof, a spring or its equivalent acting upon said armature, an insulated contact-strip actuated by said armature, and two contact-plates within reach of said contactstrip, in combination with a reversible electric motor whose field-magnet is excited by two helices connected in series with the helix of said electro-magnet and whose armature is connected in parallel with one or the other, or neither, of said field-magnet helices, according to the position of said contact-strip for the time being, substantially as specified.

3. An electric motor having two field-magnet helices placed in series, in combination with a two-point switch, one of whose points is connected to the circuit on one side of said helices, while its other point is connected to the circuit 011 theother side of said helices, and a connection from the switch to the circuit containing said helices at a point between said helices, said connection containing the armature of said motor, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

1. A relay embracing a pair of contacts, a movable conductor for making contact with the same, and an eleetro-magnet actuating said movable conductor, in combination with areversible electric motor having two field-magof said electro-magnet and into parallel connection with one or the other of said helices whenever said movable conductor is carried to a predetermined limit in either direction, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

5. An electric motor whose field-magnet helices, being two in number, are in series with one another and whose armature is in a portion of branch-circuit connection common to both said helices, in combination with an electric switch for completing a branch around one or the other of said helices at pleasure, and a controlling electro-magnet connected to the circuit of said helices, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

6. A reversible electric motor whose fieldmagnet is excited by two helices in series and whose armature is located in a derived circuit, in combination with a movable conductor whereby said circuit may be closed as ashunt about either of said helices, substantially as specified. v

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name in the presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD H. MATHER.

Witnesses:

EUGENE P. PELTON, WILLARD EDDY. 

